To improve student performance, address home as well as school

Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledgerovernor Chris Christie shakes hands with Camden Mayor Dana Redd at the Lanning Square School in Camden where he signed the Urban Hope Act into law.

Regarding your editorial addressing the Urban Hope Act (“For failing districts, relief,” Jan. 23): The data on the Camden schools are especially concerning — 40 percent of the students at the high school are suspended, 17 percent of high school juniors are proficient in math and only 10 percent of third-graders are reading at grade level.

We also need to address the home. When I read that the police must respond to violent incidents in schools 249 times in a year, that tells me that these kids lack a functional family structure. Schools are forced to provide more personnel, after-school programs and police to work with troubled youth.

Winning these “battles” costs money and just placing the responsibility of building and running schools in the hands of the private sector alone is not the answer. So yes, let’s start building these schools, but make sure they offer the children the kinds of programs that will result in a winning formula.